1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a body-gripping trap, and more particularly, to a support for a body-gripping trap.
2. Related Art
Body-gripping traps such as those referred to as Conibear® traps are widely used in the field of trapping to capture animals such as raccoon, muskrat, mink, beaver, otter, etc., along animal passages on land or in water. Body-gripping traps conventionally include at least two spring-biased jaws that close quickly to capture a part of an animal. When set, the trap jaws are biased to an open, set position in a side-by-side relationship to each other. The jaws are held in the set position by a trigger element including a pivoting wire apparatus on one jaw and a dog on the other jaw. When an animal enters into the trap, the dog is displaced by the animal's movement such that the trigger element releases, causing the trap to close rapidly to entrap the animal.
One problem with this type trap is that the trap does not inherently include structure to support the trap in the wide variety of positions encountered in the field of use. Accordingly, trappers oftentimes resort to using makeshift supports for this type trap by using such things as rocks, sticks, twigs or other matter available at the time of setting. Use of a makeshift support is an extremely undesirable situation because the unreliable nature of these supports oftentimes causes a trap to activate prematurely. Premature activation greatly reduces the chances of catching an animal and, worse, creates a dangerous situation for the trapper during setting and/or checking of traps. In addition, even if the trap does not prematurely activate, makeshift supports do not provide adequate stabilization to prevent an animal from knocking over a trap.
A number of trap holders have been proposed that include at least one vertical stake to be pushed into the ground and some mechanism to hold the trap in place such as a tether. These holders suffer a number of drawbacks. First, they require a ground surface capable of having a stake driven into it, which prevents their use in many situations where the underlying material is hard such as in concrete bridge abutments or culvert pipes. Second, many of these holders simply position the traps and do not adequately stabilize the traps from movement. Since many body-gripping traps are very sensitive to movement of any kind, even movement relative to a holder can cause premature activation and non-capture of an animal. Third, conventional trap holders are typically trap-size specific, which limits their use.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a trap support that prevents premature activation.